Swarms
Swarms are large hordes of the Infected that spawn on the edges of the survival mode map. They always move to attack the colony's Command Center and are comprised of large tight groups of runner, or runner + special zombies depending on the length of the game. Swarm Types There are 2 types of swarms players will encounter during the game - scripted and random. Every time a scripted swarm is about to appear a window with a message "Zombie swarm detected near the colony from the x" (where x is one of the 4 cardinal directions) will show along with a timer that counts game hours left before it spawns and the music will change. Once it shows up it will be marked on the minimap with a yellow skull. There's a total of 10 scripted swarms (including the final one) in every survival mission and depending on the settings they will appear sooner, or later and will have more, or fewer zombies. Waves appear on a regular schedule, and except for the final wave, are announced 8 hours before being placed on the map. The final wave is announced 24 hours before being placed on the map. The exact time that a swarm arrives can vary by up to 24 hours. The following lists the normal schedules for each duration. Swarm Schedule Swarm Size In short, Zombie population is: *Easiest: 20% *Easy: 50% *Accessible: 80% *Challenging: 100% *Brutal: 120% Random Swarms Random Swarms will start appearing after 2nd, or 3rd scripted swarm attack. These hordes are usually much smaller than those the game warns players about, but the game won't warn them when they spawn meaning that they might catch the colony off guard. The best way of dealing with them is to make sure that no side of the colony is unprotected, so that the damage they deal won't be too severe and no structures get infected. Small sends and Villages of Doom Villages of Doom will send small waves every 5 days, starting at day 20. They also seem to be sending 1-2 slow zombies every few days from the start. (Or those 1-2 slow zombies spawn from the edge of the map?) The first time you need to worry about random zombies showing at your base without you expanding, is on 2d 11-21h (on 80 days). Final Swarm ***SPOILER ALERT*** Once players are close to their time goal during survival games the message will pop up saying "Infected come from all directions! THEY ARE BILLIONS!!" warning them about the final attack of the game. This is the biggest and most difficult attack to repel of all swarms by far. The final swarm is comprised of thousands of zombies spawning from all edges of the map including multiple Harpies, Venoms and Chubbies as well as all other zombies on the map that weren't killed thus far meaning that unless the colony has incredibly strong defenses prepared by this point it most likely won't hold out. It also makes clearing of the map of all remaining zombies and Villages of Doom very important since it will mean that less enemies will come in to attack. Tactics Like all swarms, the Final Swarm heads straight for the Command Center. So it is best to build a good defense around it with at least 2 to 3 layers of Stone Walls, Stakes Traps and Wire Fence Traps. Be careful about leaving too much space between your North, East, West and South defense lines, because you may want to swap your unit distribution among them. Every building which gets infected by the zombies will spawn several more, equivalent to the number of workers inside it. So you should sell buildings in the way of the zombies (which is nearly every building not inside your defense lines). This also gives you a ton of resources to bolster your last defense. To avoid unit desertion due to the lack of gold, you can build up 2 to 3 Warehouses inside your last defense or way in the corner of the map, to stock up on gold. Seek your cuddle buddy and watch as your hard work turns to dust. Category:Mechanics